Wayne.B wrote:
On 4 Jan 2006 09:13:11 -0800, "Capt John" wrote:


they are expensive, in the area of $1000


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Yes but they also contain a GPS for precision position reports. It
was not clear to me from Karen's description whether or not the less
expensive Australian units had an internal GPS or not. Without a GPS
position can still be vectored from the satellite reporting system but
it is less accurate.


No I don't think the cheap ones have a gps but even the A$185 121.5
models are good to say 10 or so miles & the new ones I think much better
maybe down to a mile or so, all beamed from the satellite.

After all a satellite is never going to actually rescue you & in a life
jacket tightly clutching your EPIRB 1 mile or 10 miles is plenty of
accuracy from the satellite. A plane or a boat can home right in on
either device till they run over it. We had the Hobart race mayhem some
years ago & the EPIRBS became an issue because so many had been set off
that the helicopters were having trouble homing onto particular signals.
Apparently the area was still strewn with EPIRB signals days & days
later; which is encouraging given they only claim 48hrs.

I think a real issue seems to be false unidentified alarms, deliberate
or other. Here literally "every" single boat that goes 2 miles offshore
for say 15 yrs has one so there are plenty around, also they're out of
date every 5 yrs & the new battery service is almost as expensive as a
new one, so we all have a box full of old hopefully never used epirbs:-)

The 406 models will ID the device's owner which should miraculously cut
down the accidental set off rate. Apparently you can only register a 406
if you're from the jurisdiction.

K